Roseate Spoonbills in a sea fog

Roseate Spoonbills in a sea fog – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1/180, ISO 400, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 250mm, natural light

One very foggy May morning I came across a small flock of Roseate Spoonbills in a tidal lagoon at Fort De Soto’s north beach and photograph them for about 15 minutes before they flew off to find food. The fog muffled the sounds of the waves of the Gulf of Mexico rushing onto the shore just beyond the sand dunes you can see behind these two birds and the fog felt great on my skin that very warm morning. The adult Roseates were mostly resting but the juvenile pictured above began to preen while I laid in the tidal mud observing and photographing these large, pink wading birds.

Juvenile Roseate Spoonbill preening in a sea fog – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1/180, ISO 400, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 250mm, natural light

Photographing in fog presents challenges in determining exposure, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, for this image I used a lower ISO because I wanted as much detail as I could achieve and while that gave me a low shutter speed the juvenile Roseate wasn’t moving quickly and that helped to get sharp images. This image did have a small amount of Noise Reduction applied to everything except the preening juvenile Roseate Spoonbill to smooth out some of the noise I could detect prior to post processing.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to view more of my Roseate Spoonbill photos plus facts and information about this species.

18 Comments

Azstu January 11, 2013 at 9:42 am

Great Image Mia!
- Mia McPherson January 14, 2013 at 4:54 am
  
  Thanks Stu!
Sam Brunson January 9, 2013 at 11:13 pm

Great pictures!
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:35 am
  
  Thank you Sam.
Scott Simmons January 9, 2013 at 7:22 pm

Fantastic shot!
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:35 am
  
  Thanks Scott!
Eileen January 9, 2013 at 4:29 pm

Lovely image, Mia!
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:35 am
  
  Thank you Eileen.
Julie G. January 9, 2013 at 3:09 pm

In photographs, fog seems to bring about a feeling of serenity. This image is quite beautiful, Mia! I really like the subtle hues.
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:35 am
  
  Thanks much Julie!
Tami January 9, 2013 at 12:45 pm

You captured such amazing color and detail but wrapped it up in softness. This is gorgeous, Mia.
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:34 am
  
  Thanks Tami, I really liked your statement “wrapped it up in softness”!
Bob Bushell January 9, 2013 at 8:13 am

Wonderful photo, and in the fog as well.
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:34 am
  
  Thank you Bob!
Sherry in MT January 9, 2013 at 7:33 am

I love these birds and yes fog is a challenge but sometimes gives the neatest emotion. Do you ever find that you get really hung up on “must get details”? I sure do. I think Yellowstone this weekend helped me with that. Hard though not to want detail with such lovely birds. One does wonder how they preen so easily with those long round bills.
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:33 am
  
  Sherry, I do find myself getting hung up on the train of thought of “must get details” and I do try to get them in every image but in fog it can be particularly difficult. But sometimes the fog gives a mood to an image that simply would not be there if it were sunny. Thanks for commenting.
Bob Zeller January 9, 2013 at 6:36 am

I love the detail and tonal quality on the one on the left. Great image, Mia.
- Mia McPherson January 10, 2013 at 5:31 am
  
  Thanks Bob, I think the fog added to the tonal quality of this image.

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